Quick Food Eats Update

Hey hey everyone. I just wanted to post some pictures of what I ate last week. Of course, there are other things I ate like oatmeal, brown rice, chicken and all of that. These are just some other things that I don't eat as often.

This burrito is from Fluid, that coffee shop I've been talking about. I go there once a week.  They have the best coffee and baked goods. Their cookies are amazing, especially their oatmeal one and their whole wheat chocolate chip cookie one. They have organic fair trade coffee too and it's amazing! It's Red bell peppers- roasted with garlic & pesto, spinach, eggs, and dill Havarti cheese. It sounds delicious, right? It was! The picture is only half of the burrito. This was on Friday that I bought this. I'm so glad I did. 

On Thursday, I bought a turkey whole wheat pita. I know that packaged foods aren't the best but I forgot my lunch. So, this was the healthiest thing I can find. I somehow remembered to bring my green tea drink though. I bought it at the asian store. I've been trying to find the green tea drink that I drank a lot of at China. It's so hard to find it. I haven't found it yet, actually. I thought that this would be the closest but it was so plain and bland!

 I also tried this Light & Fit Blueberry Greek Yogurt. I say it tastes fine but my aunts didn't like it.

I bought these two things at 99 Ranch. It's the Hazelnut Duo Nusco and a green tea drink. This green tea drink is the closest that I had in China. The Hazelnut spread is so good! It's like nutella with milk cream. I bought it because it looked interesting. My family loves it.

Anyway, I kind of forgot what I did last week. I worked on my psychology project, I had a psychology presentation and that's about it.

During the weekend, I watched the movie 42. It was so good! It was very educational and funny at the same time. It really tells how the culture was like back then. I also went shopping for a bit after.

On Sunday, yesterday, I spent the whole day at the school library studying. It was more like 6 hours. Hey, it's finals week. The library was packed and so was the 24 hour study building. That building has 4 floors! There was that many people studying during the weekend. I was lucky enough to get a group study room (I rushed in right when the library opened). I was brain dead after studying. It's a good thing my cousin brought snacks.

Today was my history final. I think I prepared pretty well for it. I did the best I could. I also baked this chocolate protein cake. It still needs a bit of tweaking but I'll post it anyway. The taste is good but the texture is a bit off.

So, how are you guys?
Do you like studying for 6 hours straight? Would you be able to?
What's your favorite snack?

My past week

Hey hey everyone. How has your week been going? Well, my week was spent mostly at school, thank you very much. Here's what I did.

On Monday, I stayed at school all day since I had to attend an event after all of my classes. The event was in the really late afternoon. It was fun though and I met new people. Before that, I ate a snack. It was this:

It's the Heart Thrive Cranberry bars. I love that they're vegan, healthy and delicious. It sure filled me up. These are a bit chewy though.

Well, on Tuesday, I waited for my cousin while he finished his essay. It was fine. I worked on some homework and talked to a friend while waiting. In my biology class that day, we learned about respiration, the nervous system and the endocrine system. Anyway, after class snack was this:

It was the Alternative Baking Company Gluten Free Chocolate Explosion cookie. This cookie is also vegan. This cookie was delicious! It tasted like a regular chocolate chip cookie. I know. I've been eating a lot of sweets. They're my weakness. At least I'm trying to make healthier choices when it comes to sweets, right?

Anyway, on Wednesday, I stayed to work on my group psychology research project. We talked about how to present our research proposal and how we're going to design the poster board. Again, I had another sweet. I ate a peanut butter cookie from the bookstore cafe and a tuxedo iced latte. In my defense, all organic ingredients were used.  Alex, who's in my group, ate like half of my cookie. So, I don't feel too bad about  the sweets.

Thursday, it was my group debate for my sociology class. I feel that our group won the debate. However, there were no winners or losers for the debate. We were graded on the quality of our arguments.
My psychology exam was that day too.

What was also cool was that the Farmer's Market was there. There were organic strawberries, vegetables and all of that stuff. There was even freshly baked bread a bakery was selling. I wanted to buy the strawberries, but I would be carrying them around with me all day if I had bought them. Instead, I bought the Flaxseed Bread. It's so good! I bought two small loaves. Yea, people at school looked at me weird, probably wondering why I was carrying around two loaves of bread in a bag. Hey. The bread is yummy and healthy.

Friday was work. After work, I went to Starbucks because of the half of frappacinos. I ordered the mocha cookie crumble without the whipped cream and with non-fat milk. It was delicious.

Saturday was suppose to be homework day. I worked on my biology essay and on my history essay. I started typing things up for the psychology poster board too. Then, I went food shopping with my dad. Some things we bought were brown rice and unbleached whole wheat flour from the bulk bins. They're so much cheaper. The brown rice was 60 cents a pound while the flour was around 46 cents a pounds.

On Sunday, we went to another grocery store to finish up our food shopping .We bought organic fuji apples, which were on sale. We bought watermelon and this Spectrum Decadent Blend Chia & Flax Blend with Coconut and Cocoa. They were on sale. I'm adding this to my daily oatmeal.

It was also Mother's Day. We celebrated by going to a family Mother's Day potluck. I baked some brownies and some deviled eggs. At the potluck, the moms got to relax and one of my uncles brought flowers to give to all the moms. I also sang karaoke with my cousins, which was so much fun. 

Anyway, that's how my week has been. 

Do you like karaoke?

Do you like singing?

How was your Mother's Day? 

Fun Picnic Day

Yes. This cow was at the U.C. Davis Picnic Day. Don't worry. It was either painted or a suit. I don't remember which. But, that sure did catch you attention, right?

tomato plant

And, yes. I went to Picnic Day yesterday. I think it was their 99th Annual Picnic Day. And, to tell you the truth, it was my first time going. I mean, my cousin and friends attend (or have already graduated  from there, but I never attended their picnic day until yesterday. I'm happy to say that I'm glad that I went. It was so much fun. Everyone that attends Davis (and their friends and family) come. I even saw a car with a license plate from Texas.
Anyway, back to Picnic Day. I went with a few friends and we got a lot of stuff from there. The first thing we did was get a sample of the nitrogen ice cream they made. Nitrogen is much cooler than ice so, it freezes the ice cream mixture a lot faster. Then, the gas evaporates. It was so good. We also watched cockroaches race. It was pretty interesting (I hate cockroaches!).
We then watched part of the parade. There was so much to do. There were exhibits about entomology (the studying of plant diseases) and things about animals too. I wanted to learn more about the entomology part since where I work, it's part of what they do. It was pretty interesting. We got a free tomato plant and a free strawberry plant. I can't wait until they grow. I want my strawberries! Here's how they look planted in my backyard. You can't even see the strawberry plant since it's so small!

strawberry plant

We also did some honey tasting and it was pretty tasty. I thought that I would like the pomegranate honey but it was the least of my favorite.
My friend,  Amanda, was brave enough to do some maggot art. I was creeped out. They put maggots in paint and we'd use tweezers and place the maggots on paper. They would move around. leaving the paint there.
We also got to hold baby chicks, which was fun. The chick didn't like me though and jumped out of my hand a couple times. They're so cute!
There were other animals too. My friends pet a horse and they held a rat. I didn't though. I'm not really an animal person. I do think animals are cute but I wouldn't want to touch them. There was also a cow there that kept mooing really loud. That's another reason why I want to be a vegetarian again...
Anyway, there was also an exhibit of how to separate DNA. I did this experiment in my AP Biology class in high school and it was fun. We separated strawberry DNA.
We wanted to play Laser Maze but they sold out of tickets once we got there.
There were also a lot of samples that we got. I got pens, pencils, a calender, post it notes and that stuff. There were some venders there that were giving out free samples. Here's a picture of the samples:

The coffee sample is suppose to be easy on the stomach. The LundBerg Sante Fe Barbeque Rice Chips and the Short Grain Brown Rice are gluten free, organic, and GMO free. They're healthy and environmentally friendly, which was the main point of the picnic day. It had a lot of things about the environment.

Anyway, that was basically what we did at picnic day. Oh yea. My friends kept taking pictures of dogs since the dogs looked so cute.

After walking around for 4 hours, we finally decided to sit down and eat lunch. We decided to go off campus to eat. But, while driving there, we saw my cousin crossing the street. He saw us and he called me, asking where we were going. Of course, we were going to In-N-Out to eat. He actually joined us later on. But, he had to leave early since had another event to go to. I ordered the protein style hamburger at In-N-Out and it was pretty good. It was a bit messy though....

After eating and that stuff, me and my friends went to Trader Joe's. Apparently, their bananas are really cheap. I haven't been to Trader Joe's in so long! Here's what I got, but I wish I bought some bananas too.

I got all Trader Joe Brand items. I got the Smooth Unsweetened almond milk, the Spicy Black Bean dip, the Dark Chocolate with Raisins and Pecan, and of course, the Trader Joe's Cookie Butter! I've heard reviews about the cookie butter and the spicy black bean dip. I actually ate the cookie butter this morning by making a sandwich with it. It was so good. It tastes like a cookie! I drank coffee along with it.I'm also excited to try the dark chocolate bar. The combination sounds pretty interesting.

After Trader Joe's, we drove back home. Then, my family went shopping. I bought a cool new creamed colored lace t-shirt. Then, we went to a grocery store and we bought honey-glazed turkey breast to make sandwiches with, and some all natural skippy chunky peanut butter. We bought a lot of other things too for the week.

And, that's about it. My next post will be quinoa pancakes. Be on the lookout for it! Then, the post after that will be about body image.

How was your weekend?
Have you tried Trader Joe's Cookie Butter?

Life

Life has been quite hectic this week. It had its good and bad.

Let's start with Tuesday, since I'm being a rebel and I decide to not start the week on a Sunday or Monday.

So, on Tuesday, the bad thing was that I had my psychology exam. I thought that it was hard. I studied for it though. However, the good thing is that, I passed the exam! The other upside on Tuesday is that I learned more about proteins and mutations that can happen in my biology class. It was pretty interesting.

On Wednesday, the bad thing was that I had my history exam. I had to write two essays and respond to five terms, 1 paragraph each. The bright side? I went out and got some froyo with my friend.

We went out to celebrate because on Monday, I passed my driver's test, on the first try. I got my license! I'm so happy. The test instructor said that he likes the way I drive. He says it's safe but aggressive. I don't now if that's good or not but I passed! That day on Monday, I bought myself a Vegan Sesame Almond Cookie from my school bookstore just because I passed.

Also on Wednesday, I tried the bookstore's Cranberry Scone. I know. My diet's been bad, but at least the ingredients were all organic! My school bookstore's cafe sells only organic things. But, yea. I ate this while studying for my history exam since I was so nervous!

The scone was pretty good but I didn't like the cranberries. It gave the scone a weird flavor. I don't know. That's just me though. It's weird because I like craisins. Anyway...

Thursday was my night class day. I went on the elliptical that day after completing This Fit Chick's Summer Slim Down Workout. Her workout plans are mainly weight lifting. However, I wanted to utilize my school's gym's Calories to Kilowatts program. The elliptical I use to exercise will generate electricity for the whole campus to use. It's more environmentally friendly. I just had to use it.

My night class was my sociology class and it was pretty fun. We played a game and each time a team wins 3 points, they get candy! You know I love chocolate. The professor would say a sentence or a few sentences and we would have to say which reasoning fallacy it uses. It was pretty fun and entertaining. Sad thing is that, the class is 3 hours long. I got some chocolate though! ;)

Another good thing about Thursday, which was yesterday, is that I interviewed Tyler Church. He's the lead singer and guitarist for the band Revolt With Reason. I'm sure you guys know I've mentioned the band before. They're awesome. It was nice chatting with him and catching up. We both have been so busy! Anyway, the interview will be up sometime during the weekend. Here's a picture of me and him while I was interviewing him. It's a bad picture, but at least you get to see how we look. The interview took place on campus.

And today, Friday, was okay. On the lightrail, some old creepy dude started talking to me. A guy around my age went on the lightrail at the next stop and I tried to signal to him that I needed help. He just smiled and listened to his music. Gee, thanks dude (sarcasm). But then, a girl around my age noticed and helped me out. Thank you so much for helping me. It's like, the 3rd time a guy has tried talking to me and trying to get my number and that stuff on the lightrail. Ugh. I hate the lightrail.

Then, I went to Fluid to buy an iced black and white mocha (semi-sweet chocolate and white chocolate). I ordered it with soymilk. It was so good! I also tried their gluten free oatmeal cookie and it wasn't that bad. I actually liked it.  I ate it while I was working. I was working on making charts and that stuff to be used for notes and presentations.

Anyway, that was my week. I started weight lifting and I feel so intimated by others. I've also never heard guys grunt like that before while lifting. Now, I understand why! My muscles are so sore now. Also, my new breakfast staple is a cup of coffee with oatmeal cooked with almond milk, cinnamon, stevia and pb.

Do you have any friends that are part of a band?
What are your thoughts on public transportation?
How was your week?

Elf 4 Health Update!

Hola everyone. I'm sorry I haven't been updating everyday about the Elf 4 Health Challenge. Life has just been hectic the past couple days, you can say.  Anyway, here's an update.

Wednesday's challenge was to bring and give a healthy snack to a friend. I did just that. I made Dark Chocolate Chip Banana Protein Cookies. My friend loved them! The only thing she said to add is raisins and it would be perfect. She said that since there were oats, it'd made sense to add raisins too. I'll do that next time. The cookies are simple and easy to make and require very few ingredients.

Also on Wednesday, I got to hang out with an old friend at school and I met a new one too (a friend of my friend). She's pretty cool and she's from Hong Kong. Oh, I miss Hong Kong. Anyway, we ate lunch together and hung out for a bit before I went to class.

Thursday's challenge was to try a new workout. Guess what workout I did. That's right. I tried Cassey Ho's Bikini Blaster Arm Workout from blogilates. It killed my arms but it was a great workout. I love her workouts. Her ab workouts are killer too. You should try them!

Today's challenge was quite easy for me. The challenge is to not wear make up for a day. Well, guess what. I don't wear make-up. I really don't think it's necessary to wear make-up. Sometimes, it makes people look fake if they put on too much too. I like being natural. What I did instead for my challenge is to dress up a bit.

Also today, was my registration day for classes for next semester. It's crazy how fast classes fill up. With the economy and all, I'm not surprised. It is a hassle though and a huge pain trying to search for any open class to fulfill graduation requirements. Anyway....

I've been obsessed with dried fruit and nuts recently. Yes, you can call it trail mix. Peanuts, almonds, cashews, sesame, craisins, raisins, sunflower seeds, dark chocolate chips, yogurt chips, peanut butter, you name it. I've been craving them. I even ate some trail mix today at work today. I also ate a lot of craisins yesterday too. Trail mix and craisins are delicious! The trail mix I ate had craisins in them. And, they had yogurt chips. Delicious.

So, I plan on making these healthy chocolate chip cookies sometime during the weekend or next week. I love her blog. It has so many healthy (healthier) recipes. Maybe I can make these for the holidays.

So, what's your favorite cookie?
Do you wear make-up?

Elf 4 Health

Hey everyone! I'm an Elf!

I started the 6 week Elk 4 Health Challenge. It's basically to keep people on track on their health during the holidays. I'm so excited!

I found out about this because I follow the blog The Lean Green Bean.









 
So, today is Meatless Monday! I'll update this post as I eat my meals.

Anyway, for breakfast, I ate Chocolate Covered Cheerios with fat free milk.

For lunch, I'm having a Veggie Boca Burger with lettuce and Smart Balance Mayo on Whole Wheat Bread.

I'll see what I have later on in the day. Like I said, I'll update this post as I go along.


Seriously, though. You guys should join it. You get to meet cool new people.

And, here's the rest of my meals.

For a snack, I ate more chocolate cheerios and a cup of coffee. The coffee made me feel a little sick though. That didn't happen before...

After that, I ate the Alternative Baking Company Vegan Pumpkin Spice Cookie and some dark chocolate covered pretzels.

For dinner, I ate yam, tofu and green beans. I was going to make Buddha's Delight but plans change.

I admit that I ate a bit too much sweets today but I'm happy to say that meatless Monday was a success. I can't wait for tomorrow's challenge.

Election Day, Alternative Baking Company Phenomenal Pumpkin Spice Cookie and Clif Bar Crunchy Peanut Butter Review

As you know, today is Election Day. I hope that those that are eligible to vote, voted this election. Voting is one way to voice our opinion. I know I voted today and I got an I voted sticker. My classmate from last year designed it for a contest and she won. =)  As I was saying before, voting can help make a difference. It's sad that those who are eligible, don't even register to vote.

Anyway, I just wanted to post on Election Day. I ran on the trail along the river, which I haven't been able to do much, but it's nice. I like running in nature instead of running on the treadmill going nowhere. The thing is that I'm getting a lot more tan from being out in the sun. Oh well. Tanning isn't a bad thing. What's sad is that the weather is going to start get cold due to the season, which means  I may have to run inside more.

Along with that, the weather has been unusually warm the past two days. Maybe it's a response to the time change. It's getting darker earlier. Who knows. I noticed it yesterday while I went to eat at PitaPit yesterday with my cousin. It was around 4:30 pm and it was already getting dark. But, yea, at PitaPit, I got the Falafel Pita with the wheat pita. I added shredded lettuce, tomatoes, carrots, spinach, and tzatziki. It was delicious! I'm definitely ordering it again when I go back. It's weird. I went to PitaPit twice within 3 days. It's that good! Maybe I should try their hummus pita. Hummus is delicious.

I also had a pumpkin spice cookie for dessert. It's vegan.
The Alternative Baking Company  Phenomenal Pumpkin Spice Cookie was delicious.

 It's one of my favorite pumpkin products (besides pumpkin pie!). This cookie is amazing. I mean, the espresso chip cookie was delicious too but this cookie, without having chocolate, is the best. I may even eat this instead of some other choco chip cookies I've eaten before. Best of all, it's healthy (except for the sugar). It had a great pumpkin flavor. The texture's soft and chewy when you bite into it. The spices just blend so well together with it.


And, today, after running, I ate the Clif Bar Crunchy Peanut Butter.

This is the first  Clif Bar flavor  I've tried ( a while back) but never ate again until today. My friend always eats this for breakfast and she gave me one one day to try. It's delicious! It's soft and chewy with an oatmeal chewy mixture. The texture is just like any other Clif Bar texture. You also can feel the crunch from the peanuts they put inside it. It's peanut or peanut butter in every bite! It's delicious. It's great for peanut lovers


So, did you guys cast your ballot?
What's your favorite energy bar and dessert?
Do you ever want to try vegan products?

Vegan Apple Cobbler Cookie, Vegan Cinnamon Crisp, Maria Berta Classic Biscuits, MaraNatha All Roasted Natural Almond Butter, Unsweetened Almond Breeze Milk, Kashi Cinnamon Harvest, Rice Chex, Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Granola Thins, Adonia Vanilla Greek Frozen Yogurt, Snicker's Almond Bar,

Hey everyone! How are you guys doing today? I'm doing fine, thank you very much. I have so many things to review today, as you can see from the long title. I'll try and make this quick, since I have other things to do too.

Vegan Apple Cobbler Cookie

As you can probably tell, I'm getting obsessed with trying out vegan pastries. I bought this one yesterday at my school's bookstore cafe.

This cookie was big! I really enjoyed it though. It had oatmeal, raisins and apples. It was moist, soft and sweet. There was a bit of a crunch with the oatmeal, which was nice. It's probably one of the best non chocolate cookies I've eaten.

Vegan Cinnamon Crisp

I actually bought this vegan cinnamon crisp at a local bakery today. It's one of their few vegan pastries. I was craving something cinnamon without the saturated fat from the cinnamon rolls, so I chose this. It was delicious! It was sweet, crispy and had a lot of flavor. It had just the right amount of cinnamon.

Maria Berta Classic Biscuits

I love these biscuits. Only 5 for 117 calories. That's not bad, considering their size. The taste is also great too. Just like a regular digestive biscuit. Crunchy and slightly sweet. I ate some with MarthaNatha All Roasted Natural Almond Butter. Delicious!

MarthaNatha All Roasted Natural Almond Butter

I think I've reviewed this almond butter before but I just have to review it again. It's tasty! It's creamy and it has great flavor. I don't know how to describe it. It's just delicious. You do have to stir it up though.

Unsweetened Almond Breeze Milk Vanilla and Kashi Cinnamon Harvest

I just had to buy the Cinnamon Harvest cereal. It's just too good! Cinnamon, sweet and healthy with lots of fiber and whole grain. The thing is that it's a bit higher in calories. That's why I wanted to try it with the unsweetened Almond Breeze milk, which is low in calories. It was delicious! The milk itself is nice and creamy. With the cereal, it  was delicious!

Rice Chex

I love Chex cereal. These were yummy! They're also gluten free. They're nice and crispy with a lot of flavor. It's hard to explain it. It's like a corn potato chip flavor. It's really yummy though and I eat it plain! You can make stuff with it too, if you want.

Nature Valley Dark Chocolate Granola Thins

 These granola thins are delicious. Crunchy, sweet and chocolatey. It's a nice treat. The downside is that they are small and messy.

Adonia Vanilla Greek Frozen Yogurt

I love frozen yogurt, so why not try frozen greek yogurt? This was delicious. Nice and creamy. There was a bit of an artifical vanilla flavor but it was still pretty good. I made a float with a diet coke. Delicious!

Snicker's Almond Bar

Oh boy. Chocolate candy. They're so high in calories but so delicious! I decided to try this almond one, hoping that it's "healthier." Well, it's not but I can at least pretend it is at least a little bit healthier. It was delicious. Chewy, caramel, chocolate with a crunch from the almonds. Delicious. If only they used dark chocolate. That reminds me. We still have tons of chocolate candy left from Halloween. We didn't have very many trick or treaters this year due to the weather. I'm going to make M&M cookies with the leftover M&M's we have.

Anyway, back to today. I bought some things from the store today. Here's what I bought:

I just had to get the dark chocolate kettle corn because it's dark chocolate and it's popcorn. It's only 130 calories form 1 and 2/3  cup! Such a good deal for the calories. I bought the pretzels so that I can make my own dark chocolate covered pretzels with the dark chocolate chips I have. I may even sprinkle some shredded coconut when I make them (whenever that may be). I love candy corn, so I bought it (I'm the only one that likes it in my family, so they don't buy it). I also bought a LUNA bar, since the store I went to, they sell them at one of the lowest prices I've found for LUNA bars.

I was so surprised to see this at the store. I didn't they they made this flavor yet:

haha. My friend and I were talking about this yesterday, saying that they would probably make this in the future. But, hey, it looks like they've already made Dark Chocolate Peanut M&M's. I'm going to buy them next time, after we finish all of our snacks.

Anyway, do you like chocolate and coconut together?

By the way, hoy es el Dia de los Muertos!